Song of Songs 1:1
"The song of songs, which is Solomon's"
The heading: shir ha-shirim asher li-Shlomo. A superlative ("the finest song") and a link to Solomon that can mean by, for, about or belonging to him. The library's Greek keeps the title in its 1:1 together with the first line of the poem; the Vulgate prints the title outside the numbered verses. The Cave 6 manuscript 6Q6 is reported to preserve the opening verses.
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- The poem as first composedUnknown (proposals from the 10th to the 3rd century BC)
- 6Q6 (6QCant), Qumran Cave 6late 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed
- Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed
Every witness, in order
Unknown (proposals from the 10th to the 3rd century BC)
The poem as first composed
No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of the Song are four Qumran manuscripts: 4Q106, 4Q107, 4Q108 (Cave 4) and 6Q6 (Cave 6), late 1st century BC to 1st century AD (reported).
late 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)
6Q6 (6QCant), Qumran Cave 6
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Reported to preserve parts of 1:1–7. Exact text: C check against DJD XVI / DJD III (S-C04).
Jerome c. AD 390s, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Osculetur me osculo oris sui; quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino,
Latin numbering: Song 1:1–1. Jerome translated the Song from Hebrew (c. AD 390s); the Clementine edition prints the title outside the verses and joins English 1:1-2.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
שִׁ֥יר הַשִּׁירִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לִשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃ יִשָּׁקֵ֙נִי֙ מִנְּשִׁיק֣וֹת פִּ֔יהוּ כִּֽי־טוֹבִ֥ים דֹּדֶ֖יךָ מִיָּֽיִן׃
The song of songs, which is Solomon's (1:1). Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine (1:2).
Hebrew numbering: Song 1:1–2.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
The song of songs, which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
Greek translation 1st century BC – 1st century AD (debated); French 1872
Greek Song of Songs (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Cantique des cantiques, qui est de Salomon. Qu’il me baise des baisers de sa bouche; car tes mamelles sont meilleures que le vin.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 1:1–1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). Giguet also inserts speaker labels such as (Épouse) and (Époux); these are interpretation, not Greek text. A C check needs a critical Greek edition.
What changed, and why
Shir ha-shirim is a superlative like "holy of holies" or "king of kings." Greek asma asmaton and Latin Canticum canticorum keep the form; English "Song of Songs" follows them, "Song of Solomon" (KJV) the heading's name, "Canticles" the Latin.
Asher ("which") appears only here in the book; everywhere else the poem uses the short relative she-. Many scholars think the heading was added by an editor or collector, in a different style from the poem.
Le-Shlomo: the same preposition stands in Psalm headings "of David"; it may mark authorship, dedication, subject or collection. The heading tells us how the book was received (as Solomon's), not who composed each poem.
What the evidence shows
- The heading uses asher; the rest of the Song uses she-.
- The heading proves Solomon wrote the Song. Le- has several senses.
- 6Q6 preserves parts of 1:1–7. Reported; C check.
Sources
Related lessons
- Song of Songs 1: Your Love Is Better Than Wine →The title calls the book "the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's" (1:1). Then, without introduction, a woman speaks: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine" (v. 2). She longs to be drawn after him; "the king hath brought me into his chambers" (v. 4). She tells the daughters of Jerusalem she is "black, but comely" (or "dark and lovely"), darkened by the sun while her brothers made her keep the vineyards (vv. 5–6). She asks where her beloved pastures his flock (v. 7) and receives an answer (v. 8). A man praises her as a mare among Pharaoh's chariots (vv. 9–11); she answers with myrrh, henna and the vineyards of En-gedi (vv. 12–14); the two exchange praise and describe a house of cedar beams (vv. 15–17).
- Investigation: Who Wrote the Song? →The heading reads "the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's," and Solomon is named six more times. Jewish and Christian tradition long held that Solomon wrote it. The Hebrew phrase can also mean "for" or "about" Solomon; the language has late features; the voice that dominates the poem is a woman's. This investigation separates the heading, the royal imagery, the date of the language, and the question of a woman's authorship.
- How Song of Songs Came to Us →The Song grew from a world of love songs shared across the ancient Near East; it was shaped into a Hebrew poetic sequence under Solomon's name (date debated, most likely in its present form during the Persian or early Hellenistic period); it was copied at Qumran (four manuscripts), translated literally into Greek, then into Latin, Syriac and Aramaic; defended as holy by Rabbi Akiva; read as divine love by Jews and Christians for most of its history; preserved by the Masoretes; and studied today as both poetry and Scripture.